Email Problem: Send hardware to new hire shows only "-"

[VerwaltungBellem]

Dear Team,
We have identified an issue in Chiefonboarding related to the Hardware module.

Problem description:

• In the task notification emails, the field "Last Message" no longer contains the expected message text.
• Instead, the email only displays a single dash ("-").
• This behavior started recently and was not present before.

Technical observations:

• The HTML of the email shows the dash as actual content, which means the system does not provide the original message text anymore.
• Therefore, this is not a rendering or email client issue, but most likely caused by:
• The backend not saving or passing the message value correctly.
• A template/configuration problem in Chiefonboarding where the variable for “last_message” is not resolved anymore.

Next steps for analysis:

• Verify whether the last_message field in the task object/API contains the dash (“-”) instead of the actual content.
• Check the Hardware templates under Settings → Hardware → Templates to confirm if the variable for the last message has changed or is missing.
• Review any recent updates or configuration changes that may have impacted message rendering.

Impact:

• Users receiving hardware-related emails cannot see the actual instructions, only a placeholder dash.
• This reduces clarity in onboarding processes and may cause delays or mistakes in hardware provisioning.
• Please investigate the root cause and provide a fix.

long time ago, the content was shown correctly:

What we tried

• Empty Template under Email Template (Administration) -> Its empty.

Why is the Message empty here and only shown "-"?

[GDay]

This behavior started recently and was not present before.

That's very strange. Could you try to save the hardware item again?

[VerwaltungBellem]

Hardware module bug – “Last Message” missing and Hardware items lost

Hello Support,

we are experiencing reproducible issues in ChiefOnboarding v2.2.7:

1) Missing “Last Message” in Hardware tasks

• In task emails, the field “Last Message” only shows a dash (“-”).
• This occurs with both old and newly created Hardware tasks.
• The HTML of the email contains the dash as actual content.
• Therefore, the value is not passed from the system/template.

2) Loss of Hardware items

• At one point, all existing Hardware items suddenly disappeared.
• After that, I created 3 new Hardware items manually.
• I also tested by creating multiple new employees and by building a completely new workflow/sequence with Hardware tasks.
• In all cases, the issue persists: the emails still only contain a dash (“-”) instead of the message content.

Notes

• Network analysis in the browser shows no JSON API responses (the app renders server-side), so we cannot directly verify the last_message field.
• Based on the behavior, it seems the last_message variable is no longer populated or is replaced by “-” at system level.

Impact

• Onboarding hardware tasks cannot display instructions (emails show only “-”).
• Unexpected deletion of all Hardware items caused disruption in the onboarding setup.

Please investigate both issues and advise on a fix or workaround.

Thank you,
Matthias Schäfer

[MarcoGriep88]

Additional implementation details:
We are using:

Postgres:17.4 (Docker Container)
Chiefonboarding: v2.2.7 (Docker Container)
Storage for Uploads: S3
Reverse Proxy: Traefik

Live log:

`06:30:50 [Q] INFO Process-34ba8476c1a742c8be88e76263e1704b processing Send login credentials: Matthias Schäfer 'users.tasks.send_new_hire_credentials'
172.19.0.5 - - [09/Sep/2025:06:30:51 +0000] "POST /admin/people/new_hire/add/ HTTP/1.1" 200 51263 "............./admin/people/new_hire/add/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
06:30:51 [Q] ERROR Failed 'users.tasks.send_new_hire_credentials' (Send login credentials: Matthias Schäfer) - Invalid filter: 'personalize' : Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django_q/worker.py", line 103, in worker
res = f(*task["args"], **task["kwargs"])
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/app/users/emails.py", line 162, in send_new_hire_credentials
html_message = org.create_email({"org": org, "content": content, "user": new_hire})
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/app/organization/models.py", line 195, in create_email
t = Template(self.custom_email_template)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 154, in init
self.nodelist = self.compile_nodelist()
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 200, in compile_nodelist
return parser.parse()
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 513, in parse
raise self.error(token, e)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 511, in parse
compiled_result = compile_func(self, token)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/defaulttags.py", line 557, in autoescape
nodelist = parser.parse(("endautoescape",))
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 513, in parse
raise self.error(token, e)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 511, in parse
compiled_result = compile_func(self, token)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/defaulttags.py", line 853, in do_for
nodelist_loop = parser.parse(
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 513, in parse
raise self.error(token, e)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 511, in parse
compiled_result = compile_func(self, token)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/defaulttags.py", line 953, in do_if
nodelist = parser.parse(("elif", "else", "endif"))
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 484, in parse
raise self.error(token, e)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 482, in parse
filter_expression = self.compile_filter(token.contents)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 600, in compile_filter
return FilterExpression(token, self)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 698, in init
filter_func = parser.find_filter(filter_name)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/template/base.py", line 606, in find_filter
raise TemplateSyntaxError("Invalid filter: '%s'" % filter_name)
django.template.exceptions.TemplateSyntaxError: Invalid filter: 'personalize'

172.19.0.5 - - [09/Sep/2025:06:30:53 +0000] "POST /admin/people/new_hire/62/trigger_condition/98/ HTTP/1.1" 200 324 "........e/admin/people/new_hire/add/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
172.19.0.5 - - [09/Sep/2025:06:30:54 +0000] "POST /admin/people/new_hire/62/trigger_condition/111/ HTTP/1.1" 500 145 "........./admin/people/new_hire/add/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
172.19.0.5 - - [09/Sep/2025:06:31:01 +0000] "POST /admin/people/new_hire/62/trigger_condition/111/ HTTP/1.1" 500 145 ".........../admin/people/new_hire/add/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"

172.19.0.5 - - [09/Sep/2025:06:30:53 +0000] "POST /admin/people/new_hire/62/trigger_condition/98/ HTTP/1.1" 200 324 "https://onboarding.bellheim.de/admin/people/new_hire/add/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
172.19.0.5 - - [09/Sep/2025:06:30:54 +0000] "POST /admin/people/new_hire/62/trigger_condition/111/ HTTP/1.1" 500 145 "https://onboarding.bellheim.de/admin/people/new_hire/add/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
172.19.0.5 - - [09/Sep/2025:06:31:01 +0000] "POST /admin/people/new_hire/62/trigger_condition/111/ HTTP/1.1" 500 145 "https://onboarding.bellheim.de/admin/people/new_hire/add/" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/140.0.0.0 Safari/537.36"
``

The Password is send (altough the exception above). The last 2 API calls are Error 500

[VerwaltungBellem]

Hello Support,

we have further analyzed the issue with the missing “Last Message” in Hardware tasks and identified the root cause:

• Every time we run the “New Employee” workflow/sequence, all automatically created Hardware tasks are generated with a default comment containing only a dash (“-”).
• This default comment was originally created months ago and is still being attached to every new task generated by the workflow.
• In reality, there should not be any comment at all on newly generated Hardware tasks.
• This behavior occurs consistently, regardless of whether the Hardware items or workflows are newly created.
• As a result, all task emails and the task detail view show only “-” instead of the actual instructions or message content.
• When creating tasks manually, the same problem does not occur – the issue is specifically tied to tasks generated by the workflow execution.

Impact:

• All onboarding Hardware tasks triggered by workflows contain no meaningful instructions.
• This makes the onboarding communication incomplete and confusing for administrators.

Expected behavior:

• Hardware tasks created by a workflow should inherit the configured message/content from the Hardware item or template, not an old placeholder dash.

Please confirm this bug and advise on a fix or workaround.

Thank you,

[VerwaltungBellem]

Hello Support,

we have identified another issue in ChiefOnboarding v2.2.7 related to task handling:

• When closing a Hardware task via Action → Close, the task is correctly moved to “Completed Admin Tasks”.
• However, instead of reducing the number of open tasks, the system creates an additional open task.
• Example: If there are 2 open tasks and I close one of them, I end up with 3 open tasks afterwards.
• Furthermore, these tasks cannot be permanently removed from the system. The only way to remove them completely is to delete the entire employee record.

Impact:

• The number of tasks grows artificially, leading to duplicated or unwanted open tasks.
• Administrators cannot clean up the task list unless they delete the associated employee.
• This disrupts the onboarding workflow and creates unnecessary administrative overhead.

Expected behavior:

• Closing a task should mark it as completed and reduce the number of open tasks accordingly.
• Tasks should be removable independently, without having to delete the whole employee.

Please confirm this bug and advise on a fix.

Thank you,

[GDay]

I was able to reproduce the - in the email. Will implement a fix soon.

[VerwaltungBellem]

Thank you very much for your support and for reproducing the issue.
We really appreciate your quick analysis and are looking forward to the upcoming fix.

[GDay]

Okay, so the reason why this isn't there, is because the hardware item supports the full text editor, while the comments in the admin task part only support normal text with no markup. This makes it a little tricky as I can't just convert it from one to the other.
I will likely have to make the admin tasks support full text editing too to make this work.

The text in the hardware items are kinda useless now as is.

[GDay]

• However, instead of reducing the number of open tasks, the system creates an additional open task.

Do you perhaps have a sequence that creates a new admin task when you close one? That could explain this.

[VerwaltungBellem]

[GDay]

@VerwaltungBellem can you check if you have a sequence that creates a new admin task when an admin task has been completed? I think that is the issue here.

[VerwaltungBellem]

We have this sequence:

• Ohne einen Auslöser - Direkt zugewiesen → Without a trigger – Directly assigned
• An Tag 1 um 06:00 → On Day 1 at 06:00
• An Tag 1 um 08:00 → On Day 1 at 08:00

[VerwaltungBellem]

Tasks:

[VerwaltungBellem]

Hello Support,

after further analysis, we have realized that the behavior we initially assumed to be a bug appears to be an intentional feature. However, in practice it does not seem logical or useful. Let me summarize our findings:

Current behavior

• If we go to Templates → Hardware → Hardware Item, the item can be created and added to a sequence.
• Later, however, when the workflow runs, only a “Hardware Item” task is generated, and the Content field is never sent by email.
• Instead, the system creates a Hardware Item with a default comment “-”.
• This behavior still exists even after the recent update.

It seems that emails always send only the “Last Comment”, never the Content field.

• For Hardware Items, this results in emails containing only “-” (because a default dash is generated as the first comment).
• For Admin Tasks, emails work only if they are added through Onboarding → Sequence view → drag & drop Admin Tasks from the right-side “Templates” panel into the left workflow sequence. These emails also only send the comment, as no real “Content” field exists for Admin Tasks.

Why this is problematic

• Hardware Items have a Content field, but it is ignored in email notifications.
• Admin Tasks have no Content field at all – only comments – which makes them inconsistent and less useful.
• The default generation of a “-” comment for Hardware Items causes meaningless emails.

Feature request

1. Send “Content” instead of “Last Comment” in task-related emails.
2. Stop automatically generating a default dash “-” comment for Hardware Items.
3. Allow Admin Tasks to have a proper Content field, instead of relying only on comments.
4. For both Admin Tasks and Hardware Items:
   • Emails should send the Content field by default.
   • Optionally include the “Last Comment” if needed.
5. Improve consistency:
   • Hardware Tasks can be edited via Sequence → Templates.
   • Admin Tasks, however, cannot be edited in the right-hand Templates panel – only in the left-hand sequence view.

Expected outcome

• Hardware Items and Admin Tasks should both allow content to be defined and consistently sent in emails.
• Comments can remain optional but should not replace the Content field.
• This would make workflows more transparent and prevent meaningless “-” emails.

Our goal

• Our goal is to send certain emails to internal employees with specific tasks (Content).
• In case of updates or new comments, a new email should be sent with Content + Last Comments.
• Whether this is implemented via Admin Tasks or via Hardware Items (currently misused for this purpose) should be reviewed.
• The Content field should be available everywhere (both in Admin Tasks and Hardware Items) and should also be included in outgoing emails.

[GDay]

Thanks for the detailed report. It will probably take a bit before I can get to this - I have a lot on my plate right now, but I will add it to my list.
If you need this fixed fairly soon, then I can accept paid requests. In that case, I can schedule it as freelance work and give it a lot more priority to get it in much quicker. Or, as always, feel free to submit a PR yourself if you are familiar with Django.